“Darwishiyat” takes you to the lanes of the old houses... and Jericho, the oldest in history

Palestine welcomes visitors to the "Expo" through the stones of ancient Jerusalem

  • Paintings of the art exhibition in the Palestine Pavilion.

    Emirates today

  • An original piece of aluminum from the al-Aqsa Dome of the Rock cladding.

    Emirates today

  • Jerusalem from afar as it appears by the artists participating in the exhibition.

    Emirates today

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To tell someone that he is standing on the stones of the Old City of Jerusalem, and that the path through which those stones were paved will lead him to see part of the dome of Al-Aqsa Mosque, while he is here in Dubai, this seems a fantasy, but there is something of the truth that The hosts pronounce it at their first meeting with visitors to the "Palestine Pavilion" in the "Opportunity Zone" of "Expo 2020 Dubai".

Old Jerusalem

“Do you know that you are standing on the floor of the old quarters in the city of Jerusalem?”

With this sentence, the young man, Ayoub Ahmed, one of the hosts in the pavilion, began his introduction to the corridors and sections of the pavilion.

And when you ask him: How could something like this happen?

He answers that the exact same type of stone was brought from the same source, with the same physical and chemical specifications, and from the same site in which the stones of large parts of the roads and alleys of the present-day old Jerusalem lanes were carved.

An interesting introduction that evokes feelings of nostalgia and sorrow at the same time, especially in the hearts of the children of a generation whose fathers conveyed to them a lot and difficulties about memories, dreams and the life they lived and their grandparents lived in the Jerusalem neighborhoods. .

Limestone

The smooth stones on which the pavilion’s visitor stands, starting from his first steps in the outer corridor, destined for his entrance, belong to the “limestone” faction used in paving the floors of the Old City, at least during the Ottoman rule of Palestine, which is what researchers call the “late paving” of the city Jerusalem, which was known to pave its internal roads starting from the Roman era, specifically in the second century AD during the period of Hadrian’s construction of the Roman city of Jerusalem, at a level approximately four meters lower than the current city level.

Unique Features

The researchers confirm that the paving stone in the city of Jerusalem and in its old city is limestone taken from the quarries of Jerusalem, and it has three unique features. To withstand weather conditions and weather erosion, in addition to a third feature represented in the acceptance of the Malik limestone for polishing and polishing because it contains shiny crystals after polishing.

touch experience

From the entrance, whose walls are covered with giant murals of pictures that pass the visitor in the middle of the market, and under the arches of the old houses in the old city of Jerusalem, to the collections of the pavilion that extends in a number of main areas, crowned by what was included in an area that is a station to learn about major and historical landmarks of great importance in Palestine from During "Living by Touch", which displayed a real piece of the material that enclosed the Dome of the Rock of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, and allowed visitors to see it not only without glass partitions, but also to touch it by hand.

Dome of the Rock

As for the story of this part of the Dome of the Rock of Al-Aqsa, it goes back to a real part represented by a piece of aluminum from the plates that formed the cladding of the Dome of the Rock before the reconstruction of the year 1994. Historical information indicates that since the construction of the Dome of the Rock in the Umayyad era, and over a period of 1,300 years, it has been restored several times. Several, the most recent of which was the reconstruction of the period between 1992 and 1994, during which the upper metal dome was painted with gold. Before that, aluminum plates and sheets were used to coat the metal dome and the external and upper ceilings sandwiched between the neck of the dome and the walls of the octagonal building.

Jericho City

Also displayed in this area is a part of a mosaic stone from the oldest city in history.. Jericho, the Palestinian city dating back to 10 thousand years BC, which is characterized by mosaic art since ancient times, where the famous mosaic carpet was found in the great bathroom in the palace The Umayyad Caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik, which is classified as the largest continuous piece of mosaic in the world.

Darwish's voice

The idea of ​​the pavilion is based on distributing information in areas where the visitor needs to focus on one of his five senses to sense and experience the information covered in that area.

In the first areas, the voice of the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, a visitor to the corridors of the old neighborhoods in the cities of Nazareth, Jerusalem and Bethlehem, carries the voice of the Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. Such as thyme, orange and basil, used in the food and pharmaceutical industries worldwide.

heritage and cities

The pavilion bids its visitors farewell in a large courtyard that includes in one part a visual display of the most important current Palestinian industries in a number of economic sectors. Oil paintings of women adorned with traditional dress, and a film about the most important Palestinian cities with their Arabic names that the occupation changed on a giant screen, in addition to a large map with the names of villages and cities over the entire Palestinian lands, which stands between two markets of Palestinian products provided by the pavilion, one of which is dedicated to food items, The other is for collectibles and art pieces that were made by hand in Jerusalem, Hebron and Nablus.

A quick cognitive journey that the visitor lives with love inside the Palestine pavilion, but it only tells him a few small letters of immeasurably larger volumes, volumes and documents that tell the depth of the story.. the story of Palestine, civilization, history, homeland and the human issue.